Maputo — The Mozambican government intends to sell off about 3,000 abandoned shops across the country, in an attempt to boost trade in rural areas.

The Minister of Industry and Trade, Antonio Fernando, launched this programme on Thursday in the district of Manhica, about 80 kilometres north of Maputo, where property deeds for 40 abandoned shops were given to their new owners

The shops are being sold off very cheaply. Fernando says the price, depending on the size of the shop, varies between 1,350 and 3,150 meticais (between 51 and 118 US dollars).

The new owners will have six months to rehabilitate the ruins, and resume commercial activity. If they fail, the state can take the shop back and offer it to someone else.

Many of the shops were abandoned during the war of destabilisation, and some were looted by the South African backed Renamo rebels. After the war many of the shops remained closed because they were owned by the state housing agency, APIE, which demanded that the traders pay rent, and they did not have the means to do so.

To encourage those traders to return the government has cancelled 75 per cent of their debt to APIE, and has scrapped outright any fines APIE had charged.

Now that the shopkeepers will own the shops, rather than renting them, they will be able to use them as collateral when applying to banks for loans, said Fernando.

He also admitted that in the past rural shopkeepers had avoided paying tax because the tax system was so complicated. But with the simplified tax for small taxpayers introduced last year, shopkeepers know in advance that they will only have to pay 75,000 meticais a year (or, alternatively, they can choose to pay three per cent of their turnover).